A program has been initiated to test the limitations imposed by truncating the perturbation and multipole expansions frequently used in formulations of the van der Waals interaction. The theory has been developed in terms of the infinite order time dependent Hartree (TDH) scheme and is being adapted to evaluate pi electron contribution to the van der Waals interaction between conjugated bond molecules. As a first step in determining the role of many-body interactions in the binding of DNA bases, we propose to use the model of electrons in boxes, arranged as the bases in DNA, in the infinite order TDH theory. We intend to employ the full Coulomb potential within the infinite order perturbation scheme and also include transitions to the continuum. In particular, we propose to evaluate how the van der Waals interaction depends on base stacking, helical winding and interplanar distance. This study should also give an indication of the validity of the second order dipolar approximation and of the importance of transitions to the continuum. We further propose to extend the infinite order TDH scheme to include permanent moment interactions in order to assess the importance of the many-body effects on the electrostatic interaction. Eventually, we plan to employ realistic molecular wave-functions and hope to develop reliable techniques for calculating charge-density susceptibilities, in terms of which the interaction can be rigorously expressed. Information from polynucleotide optical property studies should be helpful in the computation of the van der Waals interaction of the various DNA bases, since the same electronic transitions are involved in both studies.